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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1989)
iday, April 6,198s ition ordained in Rome [- ic communist takeoie is return to his homt ay to Czechoslovakia, | >rt time in Austrij," . “My brother tledfrcr ia and sent me notia tot to return.” stria, Stransky imiti le in 1951. In 1968, fc f ermany and then caw 1 States. After workiw id Gary, Ind., Stransli :1 pastor of St. Bernaro field. ■ became part-time paj. 1 prison. Eventuallyl( inson’s full-time chap ry began key still if the Cumberland hi ate. get here is not apt tot* te last of 10 children, ed, sent him off to lit ipprentice for hisblad store’s most prominent named Lady Love bon i that their pastor had cause in the eyes of tit ness. i few miles to a lovdt t Green’s son, George, o register with govern' m’s first. STS m rs ction with ble in j cot- ecial tiirts ; are ilder M-L. ► . 3 3E Texas A&M The Battalion ifol. 88 No. 128 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas WEATHER FORECAST for SATURDAY: Partly cloudy and warm. Watch for significantly cooler weather Monday after a warm weekend. HIGH:81 LOW: 56 Friday, April 7,1989 North takes stand; defends role in Contra case WASHINGTON (AP) — Oliver North firmly defended his Iran-Contra role Thursday from the witness stand at his criminal trial, declaring he was merely a Marine following White House orders. “I was not stepping in, I was brought in,” he said. North was stopped before he could re spond to his lawyer’s suggestion that then- President Reagan had designated him for the role. Asked directly who told him to se cretly help the Nicaraguan rebels, North named former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, McFarlane’s then-dep uty,John Poindexter, and the late CIA Di rector William Casey. North’s testimony came shortly after his lawyers read the jury a lengthy statement — agreed to by prosecutors — that said George Bush had played a role as interme diary in Reagan’s secret effort to aid the Ni caraguan rebels after Congress banned of ficial U.S. help. As rapid-fire developments replaced the sometimes-languid pace of the trial, now in its seventh week, the jury heard that Bush personally told the president of Honduras in 1985 that extra aid was being funneled to his country. In earlier testimony, McFar lane had said that the aid was part of a se cret agreement calling for Honduras to help the Contras. At the White House, press secretary Mar lin Fitzwater said, “We can’t say anything. It would become a part of the case.” North, who faces 12 felony charges in cluding lying or misleading Congress and then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III about his efforts to help the Contras, testi fied that he had been ordered by his superi ors to keep silent about his role in keeping the rebels going after the cutoff of official aid. “1 was told not to tell anybody,” North said. “I was particularly admonished” to keep secret “that another country was pro viding millions of dollars to help the Con tras.” That was an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia, which supplied some $32 million in aid to the Contras, beginning in mid-1984. North described himself as an orders- obeying Marine who had planned to return to Camp Lejeune to command a battalion when top officials in the Reagan adminis tration enlisted him to run the secret Con tra opera! ion in 1984. “Was there a time when you were step ping in” to help the Contras? North lawyer Brendan Sullivan asked. “I was not stepping in; I was brought in,” North replied. Sullivan asked whether North “under stood” that Reagan had designated him as the Contras’ new provider. Prosecutor John Keker objected; U.S. District Judge Ger hard A. Gesell sustained the objection and North didn’t answer. On point after point, North said he had permission of superiors. For Project De mocracy, as the help to the Contras was known, he said he had the approval of Mc Farlane, Poindexter and Casey. The orders to keep secret the contributions from other countries came from the president, Casey and McFarlane, he said. “I never made a single trip down there or a single contact,” North said of his frequent visits to Central America, “without the per mission, the express permission, of Admiral Poindexter or McFarlane or usually without the concurrence of Director Casey.” McFarlane had testified that he told his staff members the congressional ban on helping the Contras did apply to them, but North said “I never heard” that. As for raising money, he said, referring to himself and potential contributors, “I knew Colonel North could not ask them for money.” After the congressional ban cut off offi cial U.S. aid, North said he told Casey that “all the money in the world” wouldn’t re place the former CIA assistance. Faculty association will lobby for rights of minorities, women By Mia B. Moody REPORTER Texas A&M’s recently formed chapter of the Texas Faculty Asso ciation will work to improve wom- en’sand minority rights, tenure allo cation and faculty representation in the state Legislature. Claudine Hunting, president of A&M’s TEA chapter and professor in the modern and classical language department said that in recent years concerns about inequality have fo cused on conditions facing racial mi norities. "Right now equal rights for His- panics and blacks is a hot issue,” she said. “People are forgetting women are having problems. TFA will ad dress this issue because women are not receiving the same salaries, re search support or equal opportuni ties for professional growth as men.” Hunting believes this problem might be linked to the University ad ministration. “From the standpoint of many faculty members whom we have spo ken to, the administration is per ceived as insensitive to the faculty cause, especially when dealing with women,” she said. “TFA will try to make changes in this area.” Hunting said administrative prob lems also are encountered concern ing faculty freedom. She said administrators are given a free hand in dealing with faculty members. They have nobody to an swer to. The faculty, on the other hand, has to answer to students and administrators. “We believe that faculty members should be given more equity,” Hunt ing said. “TFA hopes to bring equity and academic freedom to faculty members and give faculty members a voice in University governance like faculty members at other universi ties are given.” TFA will address the use of token ism in the hiring process at A&M. Hunting said that although many people don’t realize it, tokenism is a problem at A&M. She said that many times minorities are hired so administrators can say they have a black or a woman in their depart ment. Hunting said TFA is concerned with clearing up tenure rules be- See Faculty/Page 7 a Practical geometry Phil Mott, a senior mechanical engineering major from Waco, stands on top of a staircase outside the Engineering Physics Photo by Kathy Have man Building Thursday. By the way, the ball is a light-post globe, and the oval-looking object is a shadow-obstructed support column. Class of ’89 picks three class agents at induction dinner By Anthony Wilson CITY EDITOR Jay Kregel, Cindy Milton and Jim Simon were elected class agents for the Class of ’89 at the senior induction banquets Tues day and Wednesday nights. Katy Bradberry, class pro grams coordinator for the Asso- ciation of Former Students, said 1,633 seniors voted at the dinners but declined to comment on the margin of victory, saying only that “it was close.” Class agents are the link be tween the association and the dass they represent. They are responsible for the class newsletter, which is printed three to five times a year, and for keeping the association updated on class marriages, births, changes of address and other vi tal information. Class agents, which serve a five-year term, the longest of any volunteer on the association Council, also are responsible for promoting the association to the class and providing information on association activities. Kregel, a civil engineering ma jor from Houston, is the deputy Corps commander, the Ross Vol unteers’ historian and the Corps’ public relations officer. He also has been active in Stu dent Government and Chi Epsi lon, the civil-engineering honor society. Kregel said he perceives the class agents’ role as being respon sible for “keeping former stu dents in touch with A&M and their fellow classmates.” "The main purpose of the asso ciation is to help the University complete its mission,” he said. “The mission of the association is to support the University. It’s A&M’s mission to service the state and nation in research and edu cation.” Milton, a senior journalism ma jor, has held staff and editorial positions on The Battalion and The Aggieland. She is 1988-89 editor of the yearbook. Milton was a delegate to the Fall Leadership Retreat and serves on the senior class gift committee. “I feel loyalty to A&M, and with my communication skills I thought I’d be good at it,” she said. “From what I’ve seen of the newsletters, I know I can make mine more interesting. With Jim and Jay being members of the Corps, they will help uphold the traditions.” One of Milton’s goals for the dass agents is to raise funds through the Class of ’89 to aid fi nancially strapped students. “We can raise enough money from our class to start more fi nancial programs for students,” she said. “That’s important to the future of A&M.” Simon, a Spanish major from Houston, is a member of the Ag gie Band, the MBA/Law Society and the Corps’ public relations committee. He also was chairman of this year’s Military Weekend commit tee. Simon said he hopes to add good planning and organizatio nal skills to the position. “It’s important that the friends we develop here keep in touch with each other,” Simon said. Like Milton, Simon said he has established some goals. “I’d like to do anything I can to help the library and students fi nancially,” he said. “I don’t know the practicality of doing that with this organization, but those are two of my concerns.” Ueberroth agrees to buy out Eastern NEW YORK (AP) — A group led by former baseball commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth agreed Thurs day to buy strike-crippled Eastern Airlines for about $464 million, and union officials said they were cau tiously optimistic the deal could end the month-old walkout, at the na tion’s seventh-biggest airline. The deal, announced at a hastily- called news conference by Ueber roth and Texas Air Corp. Chairman Frank Lorenzo, still must be ap proved by Eastern’s major creditors and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Furthermore, the deal requires Eastern to reach new work agreements with its three unions — which would get 30 percent own ership of the airline in return for contract concessions — by midnight Tuesday. Ueberroth flew to Washington immediately after the news confer ence Thursday afternoon to meet with representatives of Eastern’s unions. The talks broke up at around 8 p.m. CDT and were sched uled to resume Friday morning. “Under this agreement Eastern can be back flying in very short or der,” Lorenzo said. “Eastern is pre pared to be back flying within 24 hours . . . after agreement is reached with the unions.” The Miami-based carrier has been virtually grounded since March 4 by a Machinists union strike that was supported by pilots and flight atten dants and drove Eastern to file for bankruptcy protection and reorgani zation on March 9. WASHINGTON (AP) — The su per collider cleared its first budget hurdle of the year when a House committee voted Thursday to autho rize construction of the $4.6 billion particle accelerator in Texas. Although the subcommittee on energy and research development agreed to spend $250 million on the super collider in next year’s budget, panel chairman Marilyn Lloyd, D- Tenn., said the full Committee on Science, Space and Technology must still approve the project. “To sum it up, it’s a mammoth challenge,” said Ueberroth, who will meet with Eastern unions this week end in Washington. “I’m convinced that there is a spirit among the people in the com pany that I can help bring together to help this airline.” Although Texas Air has endorsed the Ueberroth plan, other suitors still might submit competing propo- “The will of the committee will be expressed at that time,” Lloyd said. Lloyd’s subcommittee approved the Energy Department’s energy re search and development budget with no debate on the collider, agreeing with President Bush’s re quest for $160 million for initial con struction of the project and $90 mil lion for research and development. Financing the super collider at the $250 million level, however, means deep cuts will have to be made in other energy research projects, said sals to the bankruptcy court. Nevertheless, the Ueberroth deal was greeted with cheers by union members, who consider Lorenzo as a union buster. “It looks like mighty Casey has struck out,” laughed 26-year veteran Sal Fallavollita, a Miami-based East- See Eastern/Page 7 Rep. Harris W. Fawell, R-I1L, and the shape of those reductions will in fluence his support of the supercon ducting super collider. Rep. Joe Barton, an Ennis Repub lican whose district includes the SSC site, said Thursday’s vote “gives us good momentum for the next stage” and predicted approval by the full committee next week. “I feel . . . vindicated,” Barton said. “I have said every time asked that I felt we were in good shape in the authorization process. Committee approves collider funding Botha announces plan to step down JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — President P.W. Botha, South Africa’s strong-willed leader since 1978, on Thursday announced his intention to retire after elections to be held by September. His party made it clear it wanted a new president. Botha, whose grip on power began to loosen after a stroke in January, told Parliament that an early general election will be held on an unspecified date within the next five months. Botha, 73, did not state explicitly that he would re tire, but he said the outgoing president would hand over the official seal to a new president following the elections. The new president is expected to be Education Min ister F.W. de Klerk, who succeeded Botha as leader of the National Party on Feb. 2. Many Nationalists view de Klerk as more flexible than Botha and more capable of breaking the country’s black-white political stalemate. The state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corp., in a commentary to be broadcast Friday, said Botha “made it dear he did not intend to stand for an other term.” Botha “now enters the last months of a political ca reer that has spanned more than a half-century,” the commeuidi y said. He has presided over the country’s worst racial un rest and deepest international isolation but also its most ambitious race reforms and foreign policy initiatives, including plans for the independence of Namibia. Botha said he would dissolve Parliament in May and then set a date for the election. The voting is expected to take place between July 24 and Sept. 6. After the election, an electoral college dominated by the majority party in the white chamber of South Afri ca’s racially separate Parliament — virtually certain to be Botha’s National Party — will choose the new presi dent. Botha returned to work in March after spending eight weeks recuperating from his stroke while his offi cial duties were carried out by an acting president. Con stitutional Development Minister Chris Heunis. During Botha’s convalescence, National Party news papers and politicians began suggesting the president make way for a new generation of leaders. Botha de clared he planned to stay in office until 1990, and the party’s parliamentary caucus then adopted a resolution saying it wanted de Klerk to be president. The party lacked the constitutional power to force the president from office. P.W. Botha Battalion file photo